diff --git a/lucene/CHANGES.txt b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
index 9b834927b04..02a0654c3f8 100644
--- a/lucene/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ API Changes
 * LUCENE-8956: QueryRescorer now only sorts the first topN hits instead of all
   initial hits. (Paul Sanwald via Adrien Grand)
 
+* LUCENE-8921: IndexSearcher.termStatistics() no longer takes a TermStates; it takes the docFreq and totalTermFreq.
+  And don't call if docFreq <= 0.  The previous implementation survives as deprecated and final.  It's removed in 9.0.
+  (Bruno Roustant, David Smiley, Alan Woodward)
+
 New Features
 
 * LUCENE-8936: Add SpanishMinimalStemFilter (vinod kumar via Tomoko Uchida)
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
index 2cea74eea67..7130059c950 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.LeafReaderContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.ReaderUtil;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.StoredFieldVisitor;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Terms;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.similarities.BM25Similarity;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.similarities.Similarity;
@@ -865,19 +864,20 @@ public class IndexSearcher {
   }
   
   /**
-   * Returns {@link TermStatistics} for a term, or {@code null} if
-   * the term does not exist.
+   * Returns {@link TermStatistics} for a term.
    * 
    * This can be overridden for example, to return a term's statistics
    * across a distributed collection.
+   *
+   * @param docFreq The document frequency of the term. It must be greater or equal to 1.
+   * @param totalTermFreq The total term frequency.
+   * @return A {@link TermStatistics} (never null).
+   *
    * @lucene.experimental
    */
-  public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, TermStates context) throws IOException {
-    if (context.docFreq() == 0) {
-      return null;
-    } else {
-      return new TermStatistics(term.bytes(), context.docFreq(), context.totalTermFreq());
-    }
+  public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq) throws IOException {
+    // This constructor will throw an exception if docFreq <= 0.
+    return new TermStatistics(term.bytes(), docFreq, totalTermFreq);
   }
   
   /**
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/MultiPhraseQuery.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/MultiPhraseQuery.java
index 5f3b2342835..64c855d9eee 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/MultiPhraseQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/MultiPhraseQuery.java
@@ -233,11 +233,8 @@ public class MultiPhraseQuery extends Query {
               ts = TermStates.build(context, term, scoreMode.needsScores());
               termStates.put(term, ts);
             }
-            if (scoreMode.needsScores()) {
-              TermStatistics termStatistics = searcher.termStatistics(term, ts);
-              if (termStatistics != null) {
-                allTermStats.add(termStatistics);
-              }
+            if (scoreMode.needsScores() && ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+              allTermStats.add(searcher.termStatistics(term, ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq()));
             }
           }
         }
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/PhraseQuery.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/PhraseQuery.java
index fcb8e1c5812..3cf9159fa3e 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/PhraseQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/PhraseQuery.java
@@ -428,9 +428,9 @@ public class PhraseQuery extends Query {
           final Term term = terms[i];
           states[i] = TermStates.build(context, term, scoreMode.needsScores());
           if (scoreMode.needsScores()) {
-            TermStatistics termStatistics = searcher.termStatistics(term, states[i]);
-            if (termStatistics != null) {
-              termStats[termUpTo++] = termStatistics;
+            TermStates ts = states[i];
+            if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+              termStats[termUpTo++] = searcher.termStatistics(term, ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq());
             }
           }
         }
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/SynonymQuery.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/SynonymQuery.java
index e45287ab859..b2328330026 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/SynonymQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/SynonymQuery.java
@@ -205,9 +205,10 @@ public final class SynonymQuery extends Query {
       long totalTermFreq = 0;
       termStates = new TermStates[terms.length];
       for (int i = 0; i < termStates.length; i++) {
-        termStates[i] = TermStates.build(searcher.getTopReaderContext(), terms[i].term, true);
-        TermStatistics termStats = searcher.termStatistics(terms[i].term, termStates[i]);
-        if (termStats != null) {
+        TermStates ts =  TermStates.build(searcher.getTopReaderContext(), terms[i].term, true);
+        termStates[i] = ts;
+        if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+          TermStatistics termStats = searcher.termStatistics(terms[i].term, ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq());
           docFreq = Math.max(termStats.docFreq(), docFreq);
           totalTermFreq += termStats.totalTermFreq();
         }
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermQuery.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermQuery.java
index 945c1b37f9b..00196eb71d4 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermQuery.java
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ public class TermQuery extends Query {
       final TermStatistics termStats;
       if (scoreMode.needsScores()) {
         collectionStats = searcher.collectionStatistics(term.field());
-        termStats = searcher.termStatistics(term, termStates);
+        termStats = termStates.docFreq() > 0 ? searcher.termStatistics(term, termStates.docFreq(), termStates.totalTermFreq()) : null;
       } else {
         // we do not need the actual stats, use fake stats with docFreq=maxDoc=ttf=1
         collectionStats = new CollectionStatistics(term.field(), 1, 1, 1, 1);
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spans/SpanWeight.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spans/SpanWeight.java
index c193201613f..d70d2773e05 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spans/SpanWeight.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/spans/SpanWeight.java
@@ -103,9 +103,9 @@ public abstract class SpanWeight extends Weight {
     TermStatistics[] termStats = new TermStatistics[termStates.size()];
     int termUpTo = 0;
     for (Map.Entry<Term, TermStates> entry : termStates.entrySet()) {
-      TermStatistics termStatistics = searcher.termStatistics(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
-      if (termStatistics != null) {
-        termStats[termUpTo++] = termStatistics;
+      TermStates ts = entry.getValue();
+      if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+        termStats[termUpTo++] = searcher.termStatistics(entry.getKey(), ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq());
       }
     }
     CollectionStatistics collectionStats = searcher.collectionStatistics(query.getField());
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestMinShouldMatch2.java b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestMinShouldMatch2.java
index ea414e7d25f..e6debf20f0c 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestMinShouldMatch2.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestMinShouldMatch2.java
@@ -329,10 +329,10 @@ public class TestMinShouldMatch2 extends LuceneTestCase {
         if (ord >= 0) {
           boolean success = ords.add(ord);
           assert success; // no dups
-          TermStates context = TermStates.build(reader.getContext(), term, true);
+          TermStates ts = TermStates.build(reader.getContext(), term, true);
           SimScorer w = weight.similarity.scorer(1f,
                         searcher.collectionStatistics("field"),
-                        searcher.termStatistics(term, context));
+                        searcher.termStatistics(term, ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq()));
           sims[(int)ord] = new LeafSimScorer(w, reader, "field", true);
         }
       }
diff --git a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BM25FQuery.java b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BM25FQuery.java
index 3d0a0639bfa..48832492fdd 100644
--- a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BM25FQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/BM25FQuery.java
@@ -281,9 +281,10 @@ public final class BM25FQuery extends Query implements Accountable {
       termStates = new TermStates[fieldTerms.length];
       for (int i = 0; i < termStates.length; i++) {
         FieldAndWeight field = fieldAndWeights.get(fieldTerms[i].field());
-        termStates[i] = TermStates.build(searcher.getTopReaderContext(), fieldTerms[i], true);
-        TermStatistics termStats = searcher.termStatistics(fieldTerms[i], termStates[i]);
-        if (termStats != null) {
+        TermStates ts = TermStates.build(searcher.getTopReaderContext(), fieldTerms[i], true);
+        termStates[i] = ts;
+        if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+          TermStatistics termStats = searcher.termStatistics(fieldTerms[i], ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq());
           docFreq = Math.max(termStats.docFreq(), docFreq);
           totalTermFreq += (double) field.weight * termStats.totalTermFreq();
         }
diff --git a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermAutomatonQuery.java b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermAutomatonQuery.java
index ad324696fc7..79ed166b4e0 100644
--- a/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermAutomatonQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/sandbox/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/TermAutomatonQuery.java
@@ -360,9 +360,9 @@ public class TermAutomatonQuery extends Query implements Accountable {
       for(Map.Entry<Integer,BytesRef> ent : idToTerm.entrySet()) {
         Integer termID = ent.getKey();
         if (ent.getValue() != null) {
-          TermStatistics stats = searcher.termStatistics(new Term(field, ent.getValue()), termStates.get(termID));
-          if (stats != null) {
-            allTermStats.add(stats);
+          TermStates ts = termStates.get(termID);
+          if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+            allTermStats.add(searcher.termStatistics(new Term(field, ent.getValue()), ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq()));
           }
         }
       }
diff --git a/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardSearchingTestBase.java b/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardSearchingTestBase.java
index adf881889df..4f01cf77067 100644
--- a/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardSearchingTestBase.java
+++ b/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardSearchingTestBase.java
@@ -186,8 +186,10 @@ public abstract class ShardSearchingTestBase extends LuceneTestCase {
     }
     try {
       for(Term term : terms) {
-        final TermStates termStates = TermStates.build(s.getIndexReader().getContext(), term, true);
-        stats.put(term, s.termStatistics(term, termStates));
+        final TermStates ts = TermStates.build(s.getIndexReader().getContext(), term, true);
+        if (ts.docFreq() > 0) {
+          stats.put(term, s.termStatistics(term, ts.docFreq(), ts.totalTermFreq()));
+        }
       }
     } finally {
       node.searchers.release(s);
@@ -262,36 +264,31 @@ public abstract class ShardSearchingTestBase extends LuceneTestCase {
       }
 
       @Override
-      public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, TermStates context) throws IOException {
+      public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq) throws IOException {
         assert term != null;
-        long docFreq = 0;
-        long totalTermFreq = 0;
+        long distributedDocFreq = 0;
+        long distributedTotalTermFreq = 0;
         for(int nodeID=0;nodeID<nodeVersions.length;nodeID++) {
 
           final TermStatistics subStats;
           if (nodeID == myNodeID) {
-            subStats = super.termStatistics(term, context);
+            subStats = super.termStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
           } else {
             final TermAndShardVersion key = new TermAndShardVersion(nodeID, nodeVersions[nodeID], term);
             subStats = termStatsCache.get(key);
+            if (subStats == null) {
+              continue; // term not found
+            }
           }
-          
-          if (subStats == null) {
-            continue; // term not found
-          }
-        
+
           long nodeDocFreq = subStats.docFreq();
-          docFreq += nodeDocFreq;
+          distributedDocFreq += nodeDocFreq;
           
           long nodeTotalTermFreq = subStats.totalTermFreq();
-          totalTermFreq += nodeTotalTermFreq;
-        }
-
-        if (docFreq == 0) {
-          return null; // term not found in any node whatsoever
-        } else {
-          return new TermStatistics(term.bytes(), docFreq, totalTermFreq);
+          distributedTotalTermFreq += nodeTotalTermFreq;
         }
+        assert distributedDocFreq > 0;
+        return new TermStatistics(term.bytes(), distributedDocFreq, distributedTotalTermFreq);
       }
 
       @Override
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
index deb6dc10eba..192adb12d91 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/SolrIndexSearcher.java
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.MultiPostingsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.PostingsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.StoredFieldVisitor;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Terms;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.TermsEnum;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
@@ -324,15 +323,15 @@ public class SolrIndexSearcher extends IndexSearcher implements Closeable, SolrI
      * Override these two methods to provide a way to use global collection stats.
      */
   @Override
-  public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, TermStates context) throws IOException {
+  public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq) throws IOException {
     final SolrRequestInfo reqInfo = SolrRequestInfo.getRequestInfo();
     if (reqInfo != null) {
       final StatsSource statsSrc = (StatsSource) reqInfo.getReq().getContext().get(STATS_SOURCE);
       if (statsSrc != null) {
-        return statsSrc.termStatistics(this, term, context);
+        return statsSrc.termStatistics(this, term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
       }
     }
-    return localTermStatistics(term, context);
+    return localTermStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
   }
 
   @Override
@@ -347,8 +346,8 @@ public class SolrIndexSearcher extends IndexSearcher implements Closeable, SolrI
     return localCollectionStatistics(field);
   }
 
-  public TermStatistics localTermStatistics(Term term, TermStates context) throws IOException {
-    return super.termStatistics(term, context);
+  public TermStatistics localTermStatistics(Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq) throws IOException {
+    return super.termStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
   }
 
   public CollectionStatistics localCollectionStatistics(String field) throws IOException {
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/ExactStatsCache.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/ExactStatsCache.java
index fe315d2114a..002b19011b8 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/ExactStatsCache.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/ExactStatsCache.java
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ import java.util.Set;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.CollectionStatistics;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
@@ -170,11 +169,8 @@ public class ExactStatsCache extends StatsCache {
         }
 
         @Override
-        public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, TermStates context) throws IOException {
-          TermStatistics ts = super.termStatistics(term, context);
-          if (ts == null) {
-            return null;
-          }
+        public TermStatistics termStatistics(Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq) throws IOException {
+          TermStatistics ts = super.termStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
           terms.add(term);
           statsMap.put(term.toString(), new TermStats(term.field(), ts));
           return ts;
@@ -328,7 +324,7 @@ public class ExactStatsCache extends StatsCache {
       this.colStatsCache = colStatsCache;
     }
 
-    public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, TermStates context)
+    public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq)
         throws IOException {
       TermStats termStats = termStatsCache.get(term.toString());
       // TermStats == null is also true if term has no docFreq anyway,
@@ -336,7 +332,7 @@ public class ExactStatsCache extends StatsCache {
       // Not sure we need a warning here
       if (termStats == null) {
         log.debug("Missing global termStats info for term={}, using local stats", term);
-        return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, context);
+        return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
       } else {
         return termStats.toTermStatistics();
       }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LRUStatsCache.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LRUStatsCache.java
index c94695acf7f..c49f5e9c165 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LRUStatsCache.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LRUStatsCache.java
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.CollectionStatistics;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermStatistics;
 import org.apache.solr.core.PluginInfo;
@@ -132,12 +131,12 @@ public class LRUStatsCache extends ExactStatsCache {
       this.colStatsCache = colStatsCache;
     }
     @Override
-    public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, TermStates context)
+    public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq)
         throws IOException {
       TermStats termStats = termStatsCache.get(term.toString());
       if (termStats == null) {
         log.debug("## Missing global termStats info: {}, using local", term);
-        return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, context);
+        return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
       } else {
         return termStats.toTermStatistics();
       }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LocalStatsSource.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LocalStatsSource.java
index 3a08a610151..6b331083858 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LocalStatsSource.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/LocalStatsSource.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ package org.apache.solr.search.stats;
 import java.io.IOException;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.CollectionStatistics;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermStatistics;
 import org.apache.solr.search.SolrIndexSearcher;
@@ -34,9 +33,9 @@ public final class LocalStatsSource extends StatsSource {
   }
   
   @Override
-  public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, TermStates context)
+  public TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq)
       throws IOException {
-    return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, context);
+    return localSearcher.localTermStatistics(term, docFreq, totalTermFreq);
   }
   
   @Override
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/StatsSource.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/StatsSource.java
index c187fef16fc..735e22d0528 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/StatsSource.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/stats/StatsSource.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ package org.apache.solr.search.stats;
 import java.io.IOException;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.TermStates;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.CollectionStatistics;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TermStatistics;
@@ -34,7 +33,7 @@ import org.apache.solr.search.SolrIndexSearcher;
  */
 public abstract class StatsSource {
   
-  public abstract TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, TermStates context)
+  public abstract TermStatistics termStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, Term term, int docFreq, long totalTermFreq)
       throws IOException;
   
   public abstract CollectionStatistics collectionStatistics(SolrIndexSearcher localSearcher, String field)